A Dangerous Solace. Lucy Ellis

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       ‘There’s something I should tell you,’ Ava said.

      ‘Si?’ Gianluca asked.

      ‘This isn’t the first time we’ve met.’

      ‘Is that so?’

      ‘I don’t seem… familiar to you?’

      He shrugged.

      Ava knew right then that any chance of her making a little joke of it, or him being enchanted, or curious, or even maybe a little regretful had evaporated.

      ‘I meet many people. Forgive me if I don’t recall your face.’

      His tone was reasonable, his words polite. But the sentiments—they stung…

       I don’t recall your face. I don’t remember lying in the grass on Palatine Hill cradling you in my arms. I don’t remember a single one of the personal confessions you made because, really, it meant nothing to me.

      ‘You really don’t remember?’ she persevered.

      A look of irritation flashed across those hooded eyes.

      ‘No doubt you will tell me.’

      Ava knew it was irrational. She knew she had no right to expect something so fleeting, so long ago, to have stayed with him as it had with her. She hadn’t realised until that moment how deep she was into this fantasy. She really had to stop it now—unless she was keen on full shake-down humiliation.

      ‘I’m waiting,’ he said.

      LUCY ELLIS has four loves in life: books, expensive lingerie, vintage films and big, gorgeous men who have to duck going through doorways. Weaving aspects of them into her fiction is the best part of being a romance writer. Lucy lives in a small cottage in the foothills outside Melbourne.

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       Did you know these titles are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

      A Dangerous Solace

      Lucy Ellis

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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      Contents

       CHAPTER ONE

       CHAPTER TWO

       CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      CHAPTER ONE

      GIANLUCA BENEDETTI APPRAISED the shapeless suit and then the woman in it. She had potential, if she ditched the floppy large-brimmed hat, took down her hair, stepped out of the suit and started all over again from scratch. She had the essentials. She was tall, her legs were good from what he could tell, and there was a liveliness to her that she seemed to be repressing as she went to stamp her foot but then arrested the gesture.

      Which drew his attention to her shoes. They didn’t quite fit the image of the woman wearing them. Elegant low heels, graceful arch, red leather slingback, with a complicated knot of red silk flowers running over the toes. The shoes were fussy and feminine. The woman in them was not.

      ‘Give me back my money!’ Her voice was clear, crisp and no-nonsense, for all she was obviously angry. Gianluca could tell by her accent she was Australian, which accounted for the plain speaking.

      The guy was giving her the runaround. In the crowded domain of the arcade people were making a detour around the brunette standing in front of the kiosk. She looked like a ticking time bomb ready to go off.

      The foot trembling with indecision above the pavement came down with a decided stamp.

      ‘I am not going anywhere until you refund me that money. I gave your company forty-eight hours’ notice. It says clearly on your website that refunds are possible with twenty-four hours’ notice.’

      Gianluca shut down the European markets, pocketed his personal device, and strolled away from the doorway of the coffee bar he’d been frequenting all his adult life in Rome.

      Impeccable manners towards women instilled in him by a Sicilian grandmother had him approach her.

      ‘Signora, may I be of some service to you?’

      She didn’t even bother to turn around. ‘I am not a signora, I am a signorina. And no, you may not help me. I’m perfectly capable of helping myself. Go and ply your trade with some other idiot tourist.’

      Gianluca leaned closer. She emitted a light fragrance, something floral, definitely too feminine for this dragon of a woman.

      ‘My trade?’

      ‘Gigolo. Escort. Servicer of women. Go away. I don’t want you.’

      Gianluca stilled. This dragon thought he was a male prostitute?

      He